This is how much Belinda Nelson loves her neighborhood: She has asked her landlord, who happens
to be her aunt, to tell the apartment building’s next owners that Nelson comes with the place.

“Sadly, my aunt is selling it,” Nelson said of the four-unit brick building on E. Long Street. “
She’s going to try to put in the contract that I can stay.”

Nelson isn’t kidding. The 23-year-old believes in the King-Lincoln District, and she’s serious
about learning how to help it and its people thrive.

She and 14 other Columbus residents make up the inaugural graduating class of the Neighborhood
Leadership Academy, an eight-month program that trains residents to be advocates for their
communities. The United Way of Central Ohio and Fifth Third Bank sponsor the new initiative, which
requires participants from various city neighborhoods to put in 50 hours of classroom work, go on
field trips and complete a joint project.

Applications for the second year of the program will be available starting on June 1.

United Way officials say the idea is to give a boost to residents who already care deeply about
their communities but could use guidance on choosing projects and marshaling forces.

“I think the average lifetime of a neighborhood leader a lot of times is about 10 years, and
they kind of burn out,” said the United Way’s Sharon Ware. “You find out that you’re standing there
alone. I had been at that point personally myself.”

Leaders often have “all the correct ideas and plans,” she said, “but for it to work, it has to
be believed by the members of the community.”

Judy Box, the chairwoman of the Franklinton Area Commission, said the program’s first run was
good, and she expects it will only improve. Touring city neighborhoods and mixing with other
community leaders of various ages, backgrounds and cultures was a delight, she said.

“What it was effective in doing was creating enthusiasm,” said Box, 65, a psychiatrist who grew
up on a farm in Australia and now owns rental properties in her Franklinton community. “The idea
is, you go to every member of your neighborhood and ask, ‘What can you do, how often can you do it,
and what resources do you need?’ ”

Nelson, a research assistant at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, said she probably was the
youngest and least-experienced participant. But she already had mastered a detailed history of
King-Lincoln, which is a historic Near East Side neighborhood that the city is trying to help
redevelop.

And she was going over her mental list of neighborhood priorities, challenges and strengths.

“There are the old attitudes, sure: ‘You’re crazy. It’ll never be what it was,’ ” Nelson said,
citing the occasional naysayers.

She doesn’t worry. “What I’ve noticed about this community is, people like to be in it. What I’v
e discovered is, they buy into my enthusiasm.”

For information on the Neighborhood Leadership Academy, go to
liveunitedcentralohio.org/neighborhood-leadership-academy or call 614-227-8715.